Bottle cleansing and polishing device.



A. D. SHAW & G. WICKS. BOTTLE CLEANING AND POLI SHING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 5, I914.

1,144,734. Patented June 29, 1915 1IHHIIIHIIIIIIIIII-HI ll! ygg$wyzz Man/154M 520 6 7% 6 "U 2Wz THE NORRIS PETERS CO.. PHOTO-LlTHG-. WASHINGTON, D, C.

UMTED srarns Parana orrrcn ALLAN D. SHAW AND GEORGE WICKS, 0F SAVANNA, ILLINOIS; SAID SHAW ASSIGNOB TO SAID WICKS.

amuse.

BOTTLE CLEANING AND POLISHING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent. patentgd June 29, 1915,

Application filed March 5, 1914. Serial No. 822,612.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, ALLAN SHAW and GEORGE lVIoKs, of Savanna, Carroll county,

Illinois, both citizens ofthe United States,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bottle Cleaning and Polishing Devices; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it ap-- .with caps of this description are exposed to the weather, or are stored in damp places, the rust formed by the action of the moisture on the metal cap causes a deposit on the exterior of the bottle, which deposit adheres so, firmly as to be difficult of removaL Where the bottling is done on a relatively small scale, it has heretofore been customary to remove the rust from such portions of the bottle by using a taut string or cord wrapped I around the said grooved portion of the bottle and moving thebottle back andforth by,

hand, this operation being entirelyseparate and additional to the operations required for cleansing the interior of thesame bottle.

The prime object of our inventionisto provide a bottle cleansing machine which will utilize a rotating brush for removing, the said deposits of rust or other substances,

upon the exterior of the mouth end of the bottle, and which will effect this removal .of the rust simultaneously with the scouring of the interior of the same bottle, so thatboth, of these cleansingoperations maybe performed with a single handling of the bottle.

Another object of ourinvention is to provide means for resisting the pressure against the neck portion of the bottle by thebrush which removes the rust therefrom, thereby enabling the said pressure to be sufficiently gr at;.,tq etfii c iv l emove the depo i o rust is firmly embedded in the groove of the neck of the bottle.

Still another object is to provide means for guiding the stem of the brush used for scouring the interior of a bottle so as to prevent excessive vibration thereof in case of any lack of balance in the said brush.

We accomplish these objects by the construction shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of a bottle cleaning and polishing device embodying our invention. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary side view of the same. Fig. 4: is an enlarged fragmentary section of the neck portion of a bottle and of the parts adjacent thereto.

In the embodiment of the drawings, the appliance of our invention consists essentially of a brush 1 adapted to enter the interior of the bottle, and to scour the body portion thereof, anda second brush 2 adapt ed simultaneously therewith to bear against the exterior of the month end of the bottle, the said brushes being rigidly secured to pinions 3 and -1 respectively, whereby they may be simultaneously rotated by means of a single gear 5. pinions and gear are shown as carried by a frame 6, having a clamp portion 7 equipped with a. thumb screw 8 for securing (the same to, an edge portion 9 of a trough or other rigid support. The brushes 1 and 2 are connected to the pinions 3 and 4 respectively by suitable shafts 10 and 11, the brush 2 being preferably a wire brush presenting tips disposed in substantially cylindrical formation. The brush 1 may be made of bristles, wire, or other suitable materials and may be equipped with a tip portion 12 extending substantially longitudinally of the axis of the brush and adapted to scour the bottom of the bottle as shown in Fig. 2. In brushes of this kind, it is customary to secu'rethe fibers or .other brush members to the shank or stem by clamping the fibers between a pair of wires twisted about one another, which wires are usually of relatively small size in proportion to the diameter of the brush. When a brush of such construction is secured to a rotating shaft, such as the shaft 10 near the bearing for the In the drawings, the said latter, as by a screw 13, the flexibility of the twisted wire stem let will readily permit a motion of the tip portion of the brush relative to the axis of the said shaft. sequently, unless the fiber or other brush members of the said brush are nicelybalanced with respect to the said stem, and unlessthe said stem is perfectly straight, the end portion of the said brush may vibrate or oscillate considerably when the brush is be ing rotated, thereby making it difiicult to slide the bottle 15 on and off the brush or to hold the bottle firmly while being scoured. To overcome this, we preferably equip the shaft 10 with a tubular extension 17 housing and substantially fitting the exterior of the twisted wire stem 11 of the brush and ex tending considerably beyond the end of the bearing 16 housing the saidshaft. 'lVe also preferably make the said tubular extension 17 slightly smaller in diameter than the bore of the standard size bottles which are to be scoured by our machine, so that the said extension will bear against the inner surface of the neck of the bottle (as shown in Figs.

2 and a) to receive the thrust against the said neck by the brush 2. By thus introducing a thrust member, we are enabled to so proportion the diameter of the neck-scouring brush 2 with respect to the distance between the shafts 10 and 11 that the said brush 2 may exert a considerable pressure without obliging the same to be borne by the hand of the operator manipulating the bottle. Consequently, we are able to effectively and quickly remove even old and comparatively firm deposits of rust from the neck portion of the bottlewith no greater exertion on the part of the operator of the machine than will be required for merely manipulating the bottle to effect the scouring of its interior, and with no additional handling of the bottle. By making the fibers of the brush 2 of such length that they will normally extend beyond the outer edge of the neck portion of the bottle when the latter is being slid upon the guide or thrust member 17, we cause the wires or other brush members of the said brush to be flexed when the bottle is in its cleansing position (as shown in Figs. 2 and 4), thereby insurmg aforcible engagement of. the tips of the said brush members with the exterior of the mouth end of the bottle when the brush is rotated.

l/Vhile we have shown our device as equipped with a clamp for supporting the sameand as driven by a gear rotated manually by a handle 18, and as having the stem 14 of the brush 1 snugly housed by the ex tension or thrust member l'? which practically forms an enlarged portion of the shank of the said brush, we do not wish to be limited to these or other details of the construction herein disclosed, it being evi- Con- 7 engage the respective portions of the bottle with a tendency to frictionally rotate the bottle in opposite directions. Moreover, the relatively large diameter of the brush 2 as compared with the brush land the inversely proportioned diameters of the parts of the bottle engaged by the said, brushes will tend to cause a great difference in the speed at which the respective brushes tend to rotate the. bottle by frictional engagement therewith. Consequently, the bottle will not rotate in unison with either of the shafts, but at a different speed from both of the shafts, thereby causing both brushes continually to engage different portions of the bot tle without requiring the bottle to be firmly held by the operator during the cleaning.

lVe claim as our invention 1. A bottle cleaning machine comprising aframe, a. gear wheel rotatably mounted thereon, a pair of transverse bearings dis-- posed parallel to each other on said frame, two shafts journaled respectively in said bearings and extending in the same direction beyond said bearings,pinions on said, shafts both meshing with said gear wheel: an exterior bottle-cleaning brush carried by one of said shafts, a tubular extension and an interior bottle-cleaning brush both car ried .by the other shaft, said extension adapted to fit within the neck of a bottle ontered by said interior brush, the said extension engaging the interior, of the neck of the bottle to support the latter against the thrust of said exterior brush while the first named brush is cleaning the interior of the bottle.

4 2. A bottlecleaning machine comprising a frame, a gear wheel rotatably mounted thereon, a pair of transverse bearings disposed parallel to each other on said frame, twojshafts journaled respectively in said bearings and extending in the same direction beyond said bearings, pinions on said shafts both meshing with said gear wheel: a pair of brushes mounted respectively on said shafts, one thereof larger in diameter but shorter and nearer to the said frame than theother, the longer and smaller-diametered brush being adapted to engage substantially the entire interior of the body of a bottle while the other brush is engagingthe exterior of the neck of the bottle: both of said brushes bein rotated in the same direction, whereby the difference in their peripheral speeds will cause the bottle to rotate ata relatively slow speed.

3. A bottle cleaning machine comprising a frame, a gear wheel rotatably mounted thereon, a pair of transverse bearings disposed parallel to each other on said frame, two shafts journaled respectively in said bearings and extending in the same direc-' tion beyond said bearings, pinions on said shafts both meshing with said gear wheel: a pair of brushes respectively on said shafts, one thereof larger in diameter but shorter and nearer to the said frame than the other, the longer and smaller-diametered brush being adapted to engage substantially the entire interior of the body of a bottle while the other brush is engaging the exterior of the neck of the bottle: both of said brushes being rotated in the same direction, whereby the difference in their peripheral speeds will cause the bottle to rotate at a relatively slow speed: the shaft carrying the said longer brush being equipped with an enlargement disposed between said brush and the frame, said enlargement being substantially in radial alinement with the shorter brush and substantially equal in diameter to the neck bore of the bottle, whereby the said enlargement will support said neck against the pressure of said shorter brush.

4. A bottle-cleaning machine comprising a vertical frame, a support at the base thereof, a pair of horizontally disposed bearings at the upper end of said frame, a pair of shafts journaled respectively in and extending in the same direction from said bearings, a pinion on each of said shafts, a relatively large gear wheel rotatably mounted at the medial point of said frame and meshing peripherally with both of said pinions, and a pair of brushes carried respectively by said shafts and disposed at Copies of this patent may be obtained for different distances from said frame, the said bearings being disposed between the said brushes and the pinions associated with the latter, the brush nearer to the frame being of considerably larger diameter than the other of said brushes and both said brushes being rotated in the same direction by said pinions.

5., A bottle-cleaning machine comprising a vertical frame, a pair of horizontally dis posed bearings carried thereby, a pair of shafts journaled respectively in and extending in the same direction from said bearings, means associated with the other ends of said shafts for simultaneously rotating the same in the same direction, and a pair of brushes carried respectively by said shafts and disposed at different distances from said frame, the brush nearer to the frame being considerably larger in diameter than the other of said brushes and the shaft carrying the last named brush having associated therewith an enlargement substantially filling the neck bore of the bottle while said last named brush is engaging the interior of the body of the bottle, the larger diametered brush being radially in alinement with the said enlargement and engaging the exterior of the neck of the bottle while the bore of said neck is supported by the said enlargement.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALLAN D. SHAWV. GEORGE WICKS. Witnesses:

FRANKLIN J. STRANSKY, MAMIE I. MARTH.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

